Abstract:
The role of key individuals in tourism has not been given due credit in the tourism literature. This paper uses the example of H.G. Smith and his role in the development of Manly, Australia's first tourist resort to illustrate the importance of individual entrepreneurs in the creation of tourist facilities. It demonstrates the crucial role played by Smith, and he emerges as a classic entrepreneur in seeing potential in an area not viewed as having any real value. His success in turning a small isolated fishing village into a 'watering place' also reveals the diffusion of ideas and practice in the development of tourist resorts from the 'cultural hearth' of Brighton on the English coast. Many of the elements, including the basic morphology of the town and the names given to key features reflect what had taken place along the south coast of England up to a century earlier.
